SteveShannon

If you clear out the receive tone you’ll hear everything on the receive frequency. Then, if the repeater is in use, you’ll know for sure if anyone besides you can hit it, assuming that you’re in range.

I didn’t think you could do an amplifier with the rt97. Am I wrong again? 🫨

Good point!

You’re right. I was wrong. I’ll correct my post.

Nice!

That’s very admirable.

That’s only true for FRS/GMRS channels 8-14. Mobile and base radios are allowed on channels 1-7 and 15-22.

There are 22 FRS channels and 30 GMRS channels. 1-22 are exactly the same channels and both FRS and GMRS are allowed to transmit on them. 1-7 and 15-22 are limited to 2 watts for FRS, but GMRS can transmit on 1-7 at 5 watts and 15-22 at 50 watts. 8-14 are limited to 0.5 watts for both GMRS and FRS. 23-30 are GMRS only and limited to 50 watts.

#faq This thread has some misinformation. FRS and GMRS have exactly the same channels. GMRS radios are allowed to communicate with FRS radios. The limitation on output power affects certain channels. It cannot be stated more clearly than the following quote from the regulations: Here are the FRS/GMRS shared channels: As far as what types of radios can transmit on which channels, here are those regulations: And here are the power limits:

I don't but there's a Vintage CB and Ham radio antenna group on Facebook that might be able to help you: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152311108969219/

That won't affect your radio stuff at all. Other than your power supply, nothing else plugs into the house service. Also, GFIs are sometimes sensitive to RF, so you don't want your radio power supply plugged into one.

He’s Jonathan.

Not that the 97s would provide more power, but that the transmit and receive filters in the duplexer wouldn’t have as much effect on each other and there would be less losses in the duplexer. But if you did that none of the radios with preprogrammed repeater channels would be able to use your repeater. Besides, if you look at 2 meter repeaters, you’ll see that the transmit and receive frequencies are only 0.6 MHz offset. The duplexer in the RT97s isn’t necessarily designed for the lowest loss. If you really want more power get a more powerful repeater in the first place.

Although lacking in narrative, his post simply seems to compare the cost and losses of LMR400 to those for the same length of 3/8” hardline, based on the calculator at QSL.net.

I spent 23 years working for an electric utility. I knew a lineman who was killed by “just 220”. It’s not the voltage. It only takes 0.10 amps to stop your heart. Hooking the mast to a separate ground is a mistake. If you’re planning to ground the mast, which isn’t a bad idea, you are required to connect that ground to your service ground, which should be right there where your service entrance is anyway. I’ll come back and post a link to a short and easy to understand article, here: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf For your antenna feedline, you should ideally bring it into a lightning arrester first before bringing it into your house, but disconnecting it outside whenever it’s not in use will offer protection. Disconnecting it inside the house protects your radio but still gives lightning a path into your house.

Have you tried transmitting to it? Just in case they advertised the wrong output tone, try listening on 462.650 MHz with no receive tone.

GMRS frequencies are very limited and mostly close together and GMRS antennas tend to have wide ranges of low SWR.. As such there’s really no need for a tuner. Tuners are great when antennas must be used across multiple bands, as they frequently are in HF ham radio, but as Randy said, just cut the antenna to the right length according to directions or buy one that is pretuned. That’s true also for most uhf ham radio antennas.

This is a really good deal for a radio that’s small enough for a go-bag. $85 with a magnetic mount, but be sure you get a whip with a pl-259 because the mount is an so-239 (thanks to Fe2O3 for the catch!): https://www.radioddity.com/products/radioddity-db20g

I saw that too, but I’ve seen others do the same, including a lot of new people asking questions here, who make that same mistake. If you were to search for “GRMS” I bet you’d see a lot of examples of it. If it ever gets saved to your spell-check dictionary you’re taost.

I agree, but first someone would have to report the situation to the FCC.

It just so happens that the main site (www.mygmrs.com) has a shopping portal: https://shop.mygmrs.com Other purveyors are: https://www.radioddity.com https://baofengtech.com/shop/?swoof=1&pa_user=gmrs&pa_product-type=radio But as long as you pay attention to which store you’re buying from on Amazon, you should be fine. I buy lots of stuff from Amazon and I very seldom need to return anything but when I do it’s very simple. I usually only buy things that are shipped from Amazon, rather than a storefront I’ve never heard of.

Agreed. Having a radio that is certified for part 90 and part 95e, and could be flipped from a part 90 commercial (non-ham) frequency to a part 95e frequency would not seem to be a problem the way I understand the rules.

That would be fair.

Slow your roll, there, Tonya. What I said was: I agree with you that the regulations say that having the ability to easily configure a radio to transmit on frequencies in ham bands on GMRS radios excludes them from 95E certification. In fact, if you took the time you would see that I posted the same paragraph from the regulations.

We could bring them back here and vote on them?